Wheelhouse

Viking riverboats don’t have a traditional navigation center. 

Some bridges over the Main (and probably other rivers we haven’t been on…) are so low 

even the tables and chairs on the top deck have to be taken down and the side railings flattened. 

Instead, 

Normal view across the top deck

they have a wheelhouse that can be lowered into the deck while the boat passes under low bridges. 

 Going down!

They also don’t have a “wheel”, using those twisty thingies (gyroscopes? game controllers??) to maneuver instead. 

The officer giving our tour said they can spin the boat 360° while remaining in one spot. 

Pretty cool!

 Main stairway on Viking Modi

We toured a castle in France today, hoping to have the pics up tomorrow. Only 3 days until we head home. 

Baden-Baden, Day 6

This may be my favorite city of the trip. Beautiful buildings, interesting history, and very wealthy residents. They have a museum celebrating Carl Faberge (!!), with three of his Easter eggs. Really sad we didn’t have time to visit.

Mural on the road into town

The River Oos (Ooze) flows from the Black Forest through town. Our guide said it is normally bank-to-bank, rather than the tiny trickle it is this year. 

The fountain volcano

Baden-Baden’s theater was built in 1862 and is one of the oldest still in operation in Germany.

The Casino

Trinkhalle, or pump house, for the spa complex was built between 1839 and 1842. It’s almost 100 yards long and lined with columns and frescoes.

Bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I.  

Fountain bringing warm (so warm!) water straight from the spa’s spring. 

Pharmacy established in 1690 and still in operation.

One of two spas in town. This one opened in 1877 and is ‘textile-optional’ as our guide put it. 

 Ceiling detail

 Section of Roman ruins found under the spa

Evangelical Protestant Church, built 1853-1876. We used this as a landmark to find our way around town. Very cool gothic (?) spires. 

Black Forest cake in the Black Forest. From Cafe König - not what we were expecting (it’s not like the Americanized version) but so good!

Curved storefronts along the Main Street 

Graceful house, now a museum, near the gothic church. 

Building detail 

Frankfurt - Day 5? Maybe??

I’ve lost count of our days, which is what you’re supposed to do on vacation, right? This is either day 5 or 6…

Today was another walking tour (2.3 miles), this time in Frankfurt, Germany. It was also our ‘ship-swap’ day. The Main (pronounced Mine) River between Frankfurt and Strasbourg is too low for ships, even ones as shallow as river boats. 

Up before the sun

So last night we packed up all our stuff and today Viking will move everything to an identical sister ship in Strasbourg, France. We’ll meet up with the new ship via bus this evening. Some itineraries have multiple ship-swaps so we’re happy we only have to do this once.

 Love locked bridge

First tour stop - the Iron Bridge over the Main, with its thousands of ‘love locks’. 

 Looking toward old town and the Cathedral

Great views of the river and the financial district’s skyscrapers. 

 Farewell, Viking Skirnir! (The second boat)

Frankfurt’s old town was almost totally destroyed 

in two Allied bombing raids in March 1944. 

One timbered house from the 1470’s survived ⬆️, as did St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral.

Everything else we saw today has been reconstructed, 

 Vestibule ceiling inside the Cathedral 

sometimes to match what was there before 

- like the Romer (city hall) and central cobblestone square -

 No blindfold on this Lady Justice 

sometimes to evoke a general era, like the buildings surrounding the Cathedral. 

 St. Bart’s was visible from everywhere 

This house was destroyed 

but the original owner kept such meticulous records that the city was able to build an exact replica, 

down to the scales on the corner. It was beautiful.

We also took the 1-hour hop-on-hop-off bus tour around the city. 

Not a lot of information on this particular tour but they are usually a nice overview of new-to-us cities. 

 Traditional pottery for the local apple wine. Love the pottery, the wine not so much. 

We’re in Strasbourg for 2 days. 

Our dinner companions 

Tomorrow we visit the spa town of Baden Baden and Wednesday we tour a medieval castle. It’s getting close to going-home time…

The Real Documents Men

The story of the WWII ‘Documents Men’ fascinates me. Art historians and other professionals were assigned to the Army’s Monuments and Fine Arts Section and tasked with rescuing and saving as many of Europe’s art treasures as possible. To stumble on an incredible real-life example? Made my day!

“The art historian John Davis Skilton was stationed in Worzburg from June until October 1945 as an American Second Lieutenant and Officer of the Monuments and Fine Arts Section. In an exemplary manner, he organised initial rescue and restructuring measures for the cultural heritage of the destroyed city.

Most of the roofs of the Residenz, as well as the wooden ceilings and floors, had been destroyed by fire, and the surviving stone vaults by Balthasar Neumann were exposed to the elements.

Under the command of Captain Thomas Giuli, supported by Corporal Denis P. Myers as well as the architect Professor Albert Bosslet, the art historian Dr. Rudolf Kuhn and other German helpers, Skilton achieved what was practically impossible in those days: he found lumber, tar paper and cement to build makeshift roofs over the most important vaults. In this way he saved Tiepolo's frescos in the Staircase and in the Imperial Hall of the Residenz, which today is a UNESCO World Heritage site, from certain destruction through damp.”

“Immediately after the war's end in 1945, as the actress Ingrid Bergman made a guest appearance for American soldiers in front of the bombed out backdrop of the Residenz, as the surviving citizens of Wurzburg had begun rebuilding their destroyed city, and as the winter intruded with bitter cold and heavy rains, neither the hardened Main-frankers nor the occupation forces were particularly interested in preserving those art treasure that had withstood undamaged the calamatous March 16th 'Night of Bombs'. Had fate not then sent the American art officer John D. Skilton in the direction of Wurzburg, this metropolis on the Main probably couldn't boast the world over of the inestimably valuable art works housed within its walls today. The city is indebted to this young lieutenant, both a fervent art expert and admirer of Balthasar Neumann, that the most precious art treasures in the Residenz have to this day remained intact.”

“The precious wall decoration of the Mirror Cabinet with the reverse glass painting created in 1740-1745 was almost completely destroyed in 1945. Only the furniture, the chandeliers and two door wings had been stored beforehand in a safe place. Since the glass plates had been plastered directly onto the wall, the first one had broken when an attempt was made to remove it. The reconstruction was based primarily on this original fragment, an extremely detailed painting of the room by Georg Dehn and numerous colour slides taken in 1944 by Carl Lamb.

From 1979-1987 it was thus possible to recreate the entire interior, imitating the old techniques. The stuccowork alone took 27,000 hours to complete, while the gilders spent 30,000 hours applying 2.5 kilos of gold leaf. The artist Wolfgang Lenz reconstructed the complex reverse glass painting.”

“The Green Lacquered Room completed from 1769 to 1772 takes its name from the transparent green lacquer applied as a glaze to a silver ground to create a particularly luminous effect. Here too in 1945 the ceiling collapsed, the floor was burned and the walls damaged and blackened.

The restoration work in 1968-1974, which took around 32,000 hours, included the application of 120 m2 of silver leaf and 275 m2 of gold leaf. The ornamental and

figure painting was reconstructed by the artist Wolfgang Lenz based on historical photos and his own designs.”